Founded in the nineteenth century by orders of nuns with a mission to care for the poor, Catholic hospitals grew and thrived in modern industrial medicine. Many became conglomerates and dominant sources of healthcare in cities and towns throughout the nation, especially in the Western United States. The trade association founded in 1915, the Catholic Health Association today represents 1200 Catholic health care sponsors, systems, facilities, and related organizations and services. Catholics and non-Catholics alike have considered Catholic Healthcare an unqualified good, delivering high quality medicine and serving their communities’ needs. It made little difference to most people whether their hospital was Jewish, Seventh Day Adventist, Episcopal or secular. Indeed, the image of selfless nuns running charitable institutions probably bestowed a brand advantage on the Catholic entities.

This is no longer the case.

A conservative theology and obsession with obedience have ruined the brand. Nowadays the phrase “Catholic hospital” is as likely to conjure images of unyielding bishops enforcing dogma on the irreligious as kindly nuns delivering succor to the suffering. Today most people realize that very few nuns actually run or work in Catholic hospitals. Knowledgeable people also know Catholic hospitals deliver no more charity care than their secular nonprofit counterparts.

Change came gradually, but high-profile power plays by the bishops recently pushed the brand onto a steep downward slide.

3. The Catholic Health Association supported its member hospitals until the bishops extracted an admission that local bishops are the “authoritative interpreter” of permissible Catholic healthcare. The Association’s CEO publicly affirmed absolute power for local bishops to interpret the ERDs (Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare) and even to develop their own if they choose.

4. Last year a bishop in Spain declared the decision to remove food and water from a 90 year-old comatose woman an act of euthanasia. Describing the vegetative states as a chronic illness, he objected to laws allowing the family to follow what they knew to be her wishes.

5. Last June the US Conference of Catholic Bishops met in Seattle, reproached Compassion & Choices by name and denounced aid in dying as an end-of-life choice. Defying logic, the Conference asserted that adding a choice actually restricts choice and creates an illusion of freedom. More to the point of doctrinal enforcement, they called aid in dying “a grave offense against love of self” that breaks the bonds of love with God.

Blocked Expansion

Aggressive enforcement of dogma did not go unnoticed in communities where Catholic Hospitals sought to acquire or merge with secular ones. Entities resulting from unification with a Catholic hospital are always obligated to adhere to Catholic teaching and follow the bishops’ instructions for Catholic healthcare.

The enormous significance of these events became evident when Catholic Healthcare West, the fifth largest hospital conglomerate in the nation announced termination of its status as a ministry of the Catholic Church.

Renamed Dignity Healthcare, the 50 hospital system seeks to acquire additional hospitals and triple its size. The CEO readily admits that concerns about Catholic affiliation hampered his ability to grow. At the time he said the change to a nondenominational board would create “a tremendous opportunity that will help accelerate our growth.”

Oregon is the first state Dignity targets for expansion. In a subsequent blog I will examine what this means for end-of-life choice in the town of Ashland, where Dignity seeks to acquire the community hospital.

Visiting Ireland in April, I chatted with a Catholic monk as he showed us architectural details of a medieval church. He bemoaned the drastic changes underway as the government wrests control of 95% of the nation’s public schools from the hierarchy of the Church. But he acknowledged the change is necessary as the church has become more conservative and the state more leery of its control. I ventured the opinion that the Vatican’s radical conservatism hardly seems a strategy for long-term growth. “That’s not the point,” he said. “Church leaders value those of ‘truer’ faith,” and they don’t mind that this retains fewer truly faithful adherents.

If the same principle holds for Catholic hospitals in the United States, Americans take heed. Institutions that retain their Catholic affiliation and continue to embrace their ministerial role may be those most entrenched in Catholic moral teaching. Bucking imperatives of the market, they may be most inclined to apply the Ethical and Religious Directives strictly and hew narrowly to services and healthcare decisions the local bishop deems consistent with church doctrine. You can affirm, with our Sectarian Healthcare Directive, that no facility’s dogma should override your end-of-life choices, and I encourage you to do so. Because without vigilance, patients and doctors may have less influence than the bishop over healthcare decisions made inside their hallowed walls.

]]>https://www.compassionandchoices.org/2012/06/19/the-demise-of-the-catholic-hospital-brand/feed/5Good News From Kentucky!https://www.compassionandchoices.org/2012/01/05/good-news-from-kentucky/
https://www.compassionandchoices.org/2012/01/05/good-news-from-kentucky/#commentsThu, 05 Jan 2012 14:30:01 +0000Barbarahttp://blog.compassionandchoices.org/?p=1968... more]]>2011 closed with good news out of Kentucky. On Friday Governor Steve Beshear refused to approve a Louisville hospital merger that threatened patient choice. Compassion & Choices, MergerWatch, the National Women’s Law Center and other national advocacy organizations joined local activists to raise constitutional and public policy questions regarding potential threats to end-of-life and reproductive care. In announcing his decision, Gov. Beshear noted “significant legal and policy concerns.”

Religious doctrine limits patient choice in over 600 of our nation’s hospitals, nursing homes and HMOs. When a Catholic healthcare institution merges with a non-sectarian one, the Ethical and Religious Directives for Healthcare (ERDs) invariably control care provided by the merged entity. Compassion & Choices is committed to joining patient rights advocates to oppose the imposition of religious restrictions wherever the threat arises.

This proposal ceded control of Louisville’s only public hospital to a Catholic healthcare company (St. Joseph Health System), and placed healthcare decisions in the hands of the local bishop and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. We applaud Governor Beshear for exercising good stewardship and ensuring that University Hospital (UNL) serves the public interest and needs for future generations of Kentucky citizens. “If this merger were allowed to happen,” Beshear said, “UNL and the public would have only indirect and minority influence over the new statewide network’s affairs and its use of public assets.”

Despite assurances from architects of the merger, loss of public influence in healthcare could have disastrous consequences for the people who depend on publicly funded healthcare. The people could never again rely on their public institution to place the highest priority on community needs. The ERDs that govern Catholic healthcare enforce Catholic doctrine. Staff and administrators must balance that doctrine, when possible, with community needs. Some options remain forbidden, no matter how great or pressing the need may be. This balance can leave the community with uncertain and unpredictable service.

An Oct. 24 (Louisville) Courier-Journal article noted that on June 14, U of L Dean Halperin, “made a promise that we’ll respect the ERDs of the Catholic Church,” and on June 30, University Hospital CEO James Taylor stated, “we’ve also made the commitment that by joining the network with (SJHS) … we will adhere to the ERDs.”

Now that a merger might be imminent, a different stance has surfaced. The merger partners state in an Oct. 19 Metro Board of Health (BOH) release that University Hospital “will not become a Catholic hospital and will not be required to follow the ERDs.”

The Courier-Journal calls this “legal mumbo-jumbo.” Nonetheless, University Hospital spokesman David McArthur would not concede that it was a position change, but “an evolution of our explanation.”

Without governing authority, UNL and the citizens it serves could be forever tossed like a kite upon the changing winds of “evolving explanations” and changes in Church policy. In recent decades, the Vatican has become more conservative and U.S. bishops have required stricter obedience from Catholic healthcare institutions. No one can predict how Catholic doctrine or enforcement may change in the future, and once a public institution is lost, its accountability to the public welfare is lost forever.

So we welcome the new year with a celebration of effective community advocacy and a toast to elected officials who act in the public interest. Kentucky Reps. Mary Lou Marzian and Tom Burch helped inform the governor of advocates’ concerns and urged him to stand up for all Kentucky residents and their right to comprehensive healthcare.

We remain watchful. Announcing his decision, the governor said “… I have determined that this proposed transaction is not in the best interest of the commonwealth …” The emphasis was his. Compassion & Choices will resist any proposal – in Kentucky or elsewhere – that fails to safeguard patient rights to a full range of end-of-life healthcare choices

Under the merger proposal, University Hospital will join Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare and St. Joseph Health System, whose parent company is Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives. CHI will own 70 percent of the combined operations, assuming regulators approve.

When the merger was announced last month, officials said all the merged hospitals will follow Catholic health care directives. And while many wealthier patients could simply choose a different hospital, indigent patients have little choice but University Hospital for treatment, including end-of-life care.

“I don’t like what I’m hearing with this merger; patients have rights till the day they die,” said Lorri Keeney, whose 88-year-old mother died of natural causes in a nursing home under hospice care through Hosparus in May 2010 after numerous hospital visits. “I would’ve taken my mother out of the hospital if they had told me I had to abide by their doctrine.”

Keeney’s mother, Eleanor Caram, was Jewish and had a living will. But Catholic medical directives, which merger partners have agreed to abide by, say living wills won’t be honored if they go against Catholic moral teachings, which are open to interpretation.

If the merger goes forward, will the hospitals honor the carefully considered decisions people express in advance directives? We brought that question to the attention of the Louisville Metro Board of Health, Attorney General Jack Conway, Governor Steven Beshear, Secretary of Finance Lori Flanery, Louisville Mayor Greg Fisher and Kentucky lawmakers, Reps. Tom Burch and Mary Lou Marzian.

The Louisville public and others also raised questions. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Louisville-Courier asked Attorney General Conway to confirm that University Hospital is a public entity, and so must release its records related to the merger.

Conway, who is up for re-election, heard the message loud and clear. In a September 28th interview with the Courier-Journal editorial board he spent about 10 minutes of time on the proposed merger. Watch his response, beginning at around 5:00 minutes into this video.

On October 6, the attorney general issued an open records decision (ORD): University Hospital is a public institution and, therefore, accountable to the public’s interest.

Conway said University Medical Center Inc., which runs the hospital, “was established and created and is controlled by the University of Louisville.”

The decision does not directly address the merger but, as Conway suggested in the interview, it raises the likelihood patients’ rights advocates will challenge the merger, based on constitutional grounds related to the establishment clause.

The ruling could affect the merger because of the religious implications. Saint Joseph is owned by Catholic Health Initiatives, which follows Catholic directives that prohibit abortion, sterilization and euthanasia.

Partners in the controversial merger of three Kentucky hospital systems fielded dozens of questions about reproductive and end-of-life care, health insurance for employees and other issues at a community forum Wednesday that drew hundreds of people.

The following day in an editorial, the Courier-Journal distilled the concern we share with the public and other patients’ rights advocates:

The issue is whether a public hospital, operated by a public university and charged with care of the indigent population of this region (funded by tens of millions of public dollars) should have legal medical policies restricted by the rules of any religious group.

The Governor still must weigh in on the approval of this merger along with the Secretary of Finance and they have offered nothing to suggest a timetable. Compassion & Choices and its partners will continue to urge all parties to fully review the proposed merger and approve it only if the parties involved will preserve continued access to vital healthcare services, including care at the end of life.